Inverness Academy 2020 graduation ceremony; CIGO file photo
A Sydney-area woman is petitioning the premier to allow prom and graduation ceremonies in the eastern health zone.
Naomi Pembroke-Boyd’s online petition has more than 1,400 signatures in a week.
Pembroke-Boyd tells The Hawk it calls for more complete graduation ceremonies than the kind held during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
“As of today, everything- most things anyway- have opened back up to 100 per cent capacity,” she says. “If we did an outside venue, if we were able to get permission for that, we would look into that as well- the parents are willing to plan.”
The eastern zone has had only one-fifth of the cases the central zone has had since the pandemic started.
Pembroke-Boyd says grads deserve the important milestone.
“It’s almost like a right of passage- it’s an end of an era, so they deserve to go out with that bang, just like we did when we graduated.,” she says. “Our kids have sacrificed so much; for the last year they’ve isolated from their friends, they’ve given up on all of their school dances (and) most of their sports.”
Pembroke-Boyd says her goal is to get between 2,000 and 2,500 signatures before she sends the petition to Premier Iain Rankin.
She says it will also go to Zach Churchill, the province’s health minister, Dr. Robert Strang, the chief medical officer of health, and Derek Mombourquette, the province’s education minister.
